# Preliminary Qualifying Examination ## expand\_more PiN students are required to complete a Preliminary Qualifying Examination (PQE) on or before March 31 of their second year in order to demonstrate their ability to embark on original scientific investigation. The PQE comprises a written research proposal and a two-hour oral examination, and typically provides the foundation for the thesis project. Preliminary data are NOT required for the PQE. While the oral exam is focused on the content of the written proposal, students are expected to demonstrate substantial knowledge in their area of research and related areas of neuroscience. Students are encouraged to discuss their specific aims and proposal in depth with their thesis advisor and typically practice presenting and answering questions in lab meetings and with peers in the program. [United Scholars in Neuroscience](https://engage.gsas.harvard.edu/organization/usn) (USN) hosts a series of practice talks open to all PiN students. Students are required to have completed (or have in progress) at least 4 credits of elective coursework at the time of the exam and a minimum GPA of 3.0. ## Guidelines for PiN Students ### PQE Goals & Expectations expand\_more The purpose of the PQE is to assess your preparation and ability to embark on an original scientific investigation. **Preliminary data are not required.** The goals of the exam are to demonstrate that you are able to: 1. Define a question in a particular area of research, 2. Review the literature pertinent to that question with an emphasis on what makes the proposed experiments interesting and important, 3. Formulate an experimental plan that would address and answer the question, and 4. Interpret possible experimental outcomes in a manner that indicates awareness of the limitations of the methods used. You may discuss your proposal in depth with your advisor and other faculty members. Your advisor may read and suggest changes to drafts of your proposal, but the final proposal must be your own original work. You are required to have completed or have in progress at least 4 credits of elective coursework and a minimum GPA of 3.0 in order to pass the PQE. ### Forming your Committee expand\_more Your PQE committee must comprise three faculty members selected in consultation with your dissertation advisor and the program directors. Once you have decided on a topic, you and your advisor should draw up a list of 4-5 faculty to share with the program director or associate director for email approval *before* inviting faculty to join your committee. The committee chair and at least one other member of your committee must be affiliated with PiN. One member may be external to Harvard. The committee chair oversees the administration of the exam in addition to serving as an examiner and summarizes the evaluation and committee recommendations at the end of the exam. The chair is also responsible for submitting a PQE report to the program. Your examiners may serve subsequently on your dissertation advisory committee. ### Submitting Specific Aims expand\_more Before writing your research proposal and at least three weeks prior to your exam date, you should obtain approval from your thesis advisor and exam committee of the specific aims and overall direction of the proposal by emailing them a 1-2 page description of 2-4 specific experimental aims, following the typical “Specific Aims” format of most NIH grant proposals (with a short introduction and a description of each aim). Please inform your examiners that you are writing to get their approval prior to writing your proposal so that they know you are expecting a response (which may be as brief as "approved"). Committee members should either approve the aims or suggest appropriate changes. The goal here is to get general feedback on the scope of the project and suitability of the aims. You may arrange a meeting with your dissertation advisor and one or more examiners to discuss suggested changes before writing your proposal. ### Writing your Proposal expand\_more You must share your research proposal with your committee and the program administrator at least 7 days prior to your PQE. If the proposal is late or too long, the committee chair may request a postponement of the exam. Your thesis advisor is encouraged to discuss your proposed project with you in depth and to review and provide suggestions for your proposal. However, the final proposal must be your own original work. Your proposal should not exceed 13 pages, including any figures and legends (optional) and excluding references, using Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype, or Georgia typeface, a font size of 11 points or larger, and at least half inch margins. Figure legends may use a smaller type size. (Note that sections 1, 3, and 4 conform to the revised NIH guidelines for F31 applications. In an F31 application, section 2 would be shortened and folded into section 3.) The proposal should include the following sections: ##### Specific Aims (1 page) List succinctly the specific objectives of the proposed project. Two or three Specific Aims are suggested. ##### Background (6-7 pages) Briefly sketch the background leading to the present application. Critically evaluate existing knowledge, and specifically identify the gaps that the project is designed to fill. ##### Significance (less than 1 page) Explain the importance of the problem that the proposed project addresses. Identify the gaps that the project is intended to fill. Explain how the proposed project will improve scientific knowledge or technical capability in one or more broad fields. ##### Approach (4-5 pages) Describe the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses to be used to accomplish the specific aims of the project. Describe how the data will be collected, analyzed, and interpreted. Discuss potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success anticipated to achieve the aims. If the project is in the early stages of development, describe any strategy to establish feasibility, and address the management of any high-risk aspects of the proposed work. Preliminary data are optional. Any figures and legends should be included within this page limit. ##### Bibliography There is no length limit, but you are expected to have read all the papers cited in this section. ### Completing the Oral Exam expand\_more To complete the oral exam, you and your advisor will meet with three examiners for approximately two hours. You will be asked to leave the room during committee deliberations at the beginning and end of the meeting. You should prepare a 25-minute overview of your project and expect the examiners to interrupt with questions. Students typically use slides for their presentation, but any format that effectively communicates the main ideas is acceptable, including writing on a whiteboard. While your written proposal is the main focus of the exam, you are expected to demonstrate substantial knowledge and understanding in your area of research and related areas of neuroscience. For example, if your proposal is aimed at understanding the information transfer along the pathway from retina to visual cortex in the adult rodent, it would be fair for an examiner to ask you to describe what is known about the development of this pathway. Examiners may also ask questions about actual or hypothetical results and their interpretation in order to probe your level of understanding. ### Administrative Requirements & Timeline expand\_more - Exam deadline: March 31 of your G2 year. MD-PhDs are encouraged to complete the PQE in their G1 year. - By December 1 of your G2 year, email the program director or associate director with a list of 4-5 proposed examiners, whom you’ve discussed with your PI, to obtain program approval *before* reaching out to examiners and forming your committee. - By December 15, finalize your committee and schedule your exam for any date prior to the March 31 deadline. (Tip: take your advisor’s availability as a starting point, and send your committee a [when2meet](https://www.when2meet.com/) that covers 1-2 weeks around your target exam dates.) - By January 1, enter your committee and exam date/time in my.harvard, and book a room for your exam (room reservation guidelines on [PiNternal website](https://pinternal.hsites.harvard.edu/room-bookings)). - At least 3 weeks before your exam, send your specific aims to your committee for approval. - 7-10 days before your exam, send your proposal to your committee with the program administrator in cc. - After your exam, remind your committee chair to submit your PQE report in my.harvard. - Email the program administrator anytime with questions! ## Guidelines for Examiners PQE committee members have three basic obligations: providing feedback on the specific aims, reading the written proposal, and participating in a two-hour oral exam. The committee chair is also responsible to oversee the oral exam, provide a summary at the conclusion of the exam, and submit a PQE report to the program. Open all sections Close all sections ### Specific Aims expand\_more Before students begin writing their proposal, they are required to email you a one-page summary of the specific aims for approval. Your role is to provide general feedback on the scope of the project and suitability of the aims. If the aims are inappropriately ambitious—more on the scale of an R01 than a thesis project—it is important that you flag this and provide the student with an idea of which aim(s) might be eliminated and which most profitably pursued. If you happen to know that one or more of the aims has recently been or may soon be published by another lab, you should flag this. Your feedback does not have to be detailed. If the aims seem reasonable to you, a terse response of "approved" would be sufficient and would allow the student to begin writing the remainder of their proposal. Rapid turn-around is appreciated. ### Written Proposal expand\_more You should read the written proposal in full before the exam (maximum 13 pages). It is a detailed description of the project, with a required format similar to the current NIH F31, except that we request a more detailed Background section. Preliminary data are NOT required, though they may be included. You should receive the full proposal at least 7 days before the date of the exam. If a student misses this deadline, you may request that they postpone the exam. ### Oral Exam expand\_more The exam is administered during a two-hour meeting attended by the student, the examiners, and the student's advisor. The student will leave the room during committee deliberations at the beginning and end of the meeting. Students are required to present a 25-minute overview of their project, during which you are free to interrupt with questions at any point. While the oral exam should be focused on the content of the research proposal, students are expected to demonstrate substantial knowledge in their area of research and related areas of neuroscience. For example, if the proposal was aimed at understanding the information transfer along the pathway from retina to visual cortex in the adult rodent, it would be fair for you to ask the student to describe what is known about the development of this pathway. You may also ask questions about actual or hypothetical results and their interpretation in order to probe the student's level of understanding. The goals of the exam are to determine (1) if the student is prepared to undertake this project, and (2) to make the student and advisor aware of areas where improvement is needed. ### Exam Outcomes expand\_more Students will be asked to leave the room during deliberations at the beginning and end of the exam. The exam committee will decide on one of three outcomes: Pass, Conditional Pass, or Special Committee Review. The committee chair is responsible for submitting an evaluation in my.harvard documenting the exam outcome, discussing the student’s strengths and weaknesses as noted during the exam, and summarizing committee recommendations. The PQE evaluation will be shared with the student, the student’s thesis advisor, and the program directors. #### Pass If the exam committee agrees that the student is fully ready to initiate work on their proposed projects, the student should receive a clear “Pass.” The committee may recommend additional work to correct minor deficiencies and help guide the proposed projects; however, no further work on the PQE will be required. At the end of the exam, the committee should recommend a time frame for the first DAC meeting, which must be held within 9 months of the PQE. #### Conditional Pass If the committee agrees that the student would benefit from additional preparation before initiating work on their proposed projects, the student should receive a “Conditional Pass.” The committee will outline a clear set of recommendations with completion deadlines in the evaluation that is shared with the student, the student’s thesis advisor, and the program directors. Students are typically given 30 days to complete the additional work and should receive a “Pass” once the additional work is completed to the satisfaction of the committee. If the student does not complete the additional work satisfactorily or if the committee agrees after the initial exam that there are substantial deficiencies in the student’s knowledge, intellectual approach, written proposal, labwork, coursework, or communication skills, then the committee should recommend the student for “Special Committee Review.” #### Special Committee Review If a student is recommended for “Special Committee Review,” they will be required to meet with their exam committee and the program director or associate director (who together comprise the special committee) 3 months after their PQE after undertaking additional work. The program director will coordinate with the exam committee chair and the student’s thesis advisor to develop a detailed plan for the student and expectations for the special committee review meeting, and will outline these clearly in a letter to the student, with the student’s thesis advisor and all members of the special committee in cc. The plan may address issues with the written proposal, oral presentation, research activities, coursework, and/or professional conduct. The student may be required to repeat the exam, but in some cases this may not be necessary. The plan and meeting format should be tailored to the student’s individual circumstances. After the special committee review meeting, the program director will consult with the student’s thesis advisor and the Dean of Graduate Education to review the student’s status and will send the student an update within 3 days. It is important to keep in mind that the PQE is not an evaluation of a student’s innate intelligence or aptitude for science but rather a mechanism for evaluating a range of external factors to help ensure that all students embarking on a PhD thesis have a strong chance of succeeding in a reasonable amount of time. A number of PiN students who did not receive a clear “Pass” on their initial PQE went on to pass after additional work following committee recommendations and ultimately to complete a successful thesis, some even with a first-author top-tier journal publication. The PQE is an opportunity for students to receive and implement feedback, an essential aspect of our training program and the way we practice science. ### Subsequent Commitments expand\_more In most cases, the PQE examiners continue on as the Dissertation Advisory Committee (DAC) by mutual consent, but you are not obligated to do so. By the same token, students are free to choose other faculty to serve on their DAC.